"Blindsight" & "Echopraxia" by Peter Watts - a qualified positive review, discussion and questions

 ► Review (light contextual & thematic spoilers):

"Firefall" omnibus edition of both novels

These two hard sci-fi novels are ostensibly space operas, set near the end of this century. They depart from a world where base humanity is struggling for relevance, half choosing to live in virtual reality heaven. While technology has resurrected once extinct vampires.

But the author also uses the context and diverse assortment of transhuman characters, in each book respectively, to explore themes of, first: neuroscience, abnormal psychology and consciousness. Then: genetic engineering, augmented intelligence, belief, identity, culpability and free will (or lack of).

Both books have an explicit discussion of concepts at the end, with over 100 references to science papers and other books, in each. This comprises a full 10% of Echopraxia's total length! In case readers had any doubts about just how thoroughly researched and insightful these works are.

There are certainly spaceships, action and a novel first contact situation. But the plot arks were somewhat arduous through long mid-sections, with lots of dialogue that dragged a little. Brooding suspense and flashbacks, in one. Voyage with sometimes grating protagonist interactions, in two.

Echopraxia doesn't really continue on from Blindsight directly. For me, it had somewhat of a feel like, for example, Prometheus (2012) continuing the Alien (1979) franchise. Although there is technically one recurring character. Book two reframes the first a little and is mostly a chance to explore additional futurism and dig more into his conception of a hyper-intelligent vampire.

Despite a promising first book opening, that name checked the (technological) singularity and Ray Kurzweil explicit, I never quite meshed with the feel of Peter Watts' philosophising. Throughout either book. I think, in part, he deliberately writes to make things uncomfortable. There's certainly no heart warming romance or nice happy endings.

But, more fundamentally, in the afterword of Echopraxia, he explicitly states that he doesn't support/believe in the concept of digital physics. I.e. the leitmotif of most of Greg Egan's works, and (implicitly) many works by other authors, which have sat more squarely with my own core beliefs and understanding of the universe.

The character arcs conclude properly, in my opinion. Although there seems to be deliberate ambiguity left for interpretation as to exactly what and why various things happened, big and small.

"Permutation City" by Greg Egan - Review & Discussion

Egan is famous for his very high concept hard sci-fi fiction that leverages his academic background in mathematics plus deep knowledge of quantum physics and computer science. Permutation City is no exception, exploring an even broader scope of fascinating concepts than Schild's Ladder, which I'd read years ago.

It's one in a set of 3 novels, by him, grouped together as "subjective cosmology". But they're not linked in any way besides this categorisation of theme.

It pushes far beyond hand waving philosophy, weaving in some solid technical references, as it explores concepts of: continuity of identity, simulation of consciousness, extreme transhumanist mind modification, subjective reality, artificial life within deterministic systems, computability, parasitic computation and "dust theory". Many ideas I consider important to at least be vaguely aware of.

His characters are adequately believable and his writing style reasonably sophisticated. Although my attention/motivation struggles a little, these days, with this kind of classic novel structure: alternating chapters between several characters, telling a story largely in parallel.

Hannu Rajaniemi's "Quantum Thief" Trilogy

Review:

The pinnacle of high-concept, hard sci-fi, space opera cyberpunk, seemingly packed with every single concept the author could find, and he's a very smart guy: physicist, mathematician, cosmologist, recently launched a synthetic DNA start-up (via his TEDx talk). Finnish, but writing while in Edinburgh, literally hanging out with Charlie Stross, it's no coincidence that he's taken up the baton of writing the most futurism-idea dense, fast-paced (show don't tell) space-romp fun. Think "Accelerando" with the breakneck pace of "Singularity Sky". Stross surpassed I.M.Banks for this crown (in my mind), with stories that made traditional (mainstream) spaceship fiction look like quaint period dramas, pootling about in sail ships.

Mind uploads, planet scale computronium and all types of Singularity as obvious givens for Hannu Rajaniemi. He imagines the consequences of massively duplicated and branched individuals, in a complex future where identity and memory are slippery constructs and inequality has been inflated to vertiginous levels. It is cyberpunk, spun out, with contemporary nationality wiped away by subcultural identities flung across the entire solar system.

References are littered everywhere, at every scale of the telling, from throw-away pop-culture name drops (of famous games, anime series, etc), to terms for Ukrainian governance sub-divisions, to politics, philosophy and the (centuries old) historical origins of transhumanism. The books are so thick with meaning that they're far bigger than themselves; overloaded; virtually all the names and terminology (while sounding awesomely fitting, also) link the reader out to explore countless Wikipedia articles and culture.

Each of the three books has it's own distinct flavour, thematic reflections: personal, social (structure), philosophical and particular literary influences. Each also converges on a different planet, so their sub-arks cohere well as separate books. But they undeniably form a very carefully pre-planned and crafted whole. Densely plotted, too: subtle elements of the very first chapter of the first book become key through to the last. So, although Rajaniemi weaves in little reminder snippets here and there, it's highly advisory to read these books consecutively, and even then it may be worth checking out glossaries and/or synopsis in between.

If you are reading my blog, then you may well be within the core audience for this story, too. It fits perfectly with everything I've aimed to write about here myself. Other reviewers have complained of these books flying over their heads. Certainly I've been compelled to re-read sections, research meaning, etc, and am still not certain of precisely what happens in the conclusion. It is, however, definitely wrapped up properly. And I've had a virtually parallel (although even less than mediocre) academic path through physics and computer science, with strikingly overlapping cultural influences to the author (being, myself, only a little younger).

So perched atop the shoulders of high-concept sci-fi past, I'd definitely not recommend this series to the genre naive! Something to build up to, even more so than advice for readers to get a feel for Culture novels before embarking upon "Excession" or "Use of Weapons". Even then, you'll probably have to just roll with punches and maybe go back to pick out more of the details later. But  worth the effort and it works on multiple levels anyway!

[1] Quantum Thief (332 pages):

The first and best of the three. There is just no way that the others could ever have competed with the addictive rush from the tidal wall of novelty this installment hits you with! Also, with so much still a mystery, the fictional solar system feels bigger and far more real; a story in a crazy place, rather than about the place itself (which is more the case as the books progress).

The main setting here is also the most compelling in its familiarity, being structured around extreme technologically enabled privacy, with surveillance and control through information, all pressing issues (much like our present). The morally ambiguous gentleman thief character archetype drops perfectly into this setting, initiating the serie's liet motif of examining imprisonment, imposed control, security, enforced uniqueness, versus theft, liberation, diversity, etc.

[2] Fractal Prince (331 pages):

Feels the most out of place with the city of "Sirr"; it's characters didn't quite fit for me, or at least they are less knotted up with the plot than most of the others (arbitrary and single use by comparison). Twaddud felt stilted. Also, my disbelief was stretched thinnest here, with a core plot mechanism that could be a satire of Hofstadter's "Strange Loop" concept.

It's probably the easiest book to get lost in, which is saying something, since there are glimpses of deeper meaning secreted in plain sight throughout the trilogy, like fractal detail to gaze upon during re-reading. But this novel's "Arabian Nights", story(s) within story(s), "Inception" like structure doesn't help, and the intermingled interludes and flashbacks gain more concrete context from reading the next installment.


[3] Causal Angel (303 pages):

Neatly ties together all the pieces, places and people previous covered. Yet it is slightly shorter than the previous two books and feels shorter still. The plot is more linear, like it is following the ballistic trajectory that was set in motion.

Perhaps it could have dwelt a little longer on certain places and people; maybe some of the developments risked feeling a little too emotionally gymnastic, or unremarked upon. Although the core characters were developed across the entire length of the ark.



Discussion (SPOILERS Ahead!):

Why SETI is stupid!

Many minds have pondered the tired, old 'Fermi Paradox' (the conspicuous lack of alien buddies out there in our humongous universe).

[XKCD]

+ Susan Blackmore's solution to the Fermi paradox (see her TED lecture): the necessary paradigm shifts to each kind of replicator (genes, memes, temes) are apocalyptically dangerous. Each (necessary) transition reduces the chances of a fertile planet bearing space-faring life forms; each adds an extra constant to the Drake Equation. She speculated in "The Meme Machine" that meme's evolutionary force driving bigger brains may have overstretched the physiology of our hominid peers, driving Neanderthals extinct. Mems have also, through humans, have wiped out more genetic diversity than a mass extinction, fostered luming terrors are nuclear annihilation, or terminator style runaway AI. I'm more optimistic, seeing only the risk of delay, not unrecoverable oblivion.

[TED (2008) - http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.html]

[The (standard) Drake Equation]

+ In the BBC news article (that triggered this blog article): "Alien hunters 'should look for artificial intelligence'", Seth Shostak is interviewed as saying we should look for AI aliens, rather than flesh and bones. e.g. not just concentrating observations on biologically 'habitable' planets, but areas richest in mass and energy where only machines could exist.

[BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11041449 ]

So it seems the realisation may be approaching mainstream consciousness: ogling the skies for alien peers is quite clearly pointless. Not because (the conditions for) life is necessarily rare (or because of any literal religious truth), but because life (e.g. humanity) will pass through this (SETI) phase in gynaecological evolution so rapidly...

Last Month in New Scientist (The Best of August 2009)

For all the articles in the magazine that I've found interesting but not thought worthy of an entire blog entry devoted to them. I was aiming to mention about 4 articles per issue, with a paragraph each. Naturally, I've elaborate significantly in places (the Noel Sharkey interview became a full blown piece on it's own), and there were 5 magazine issues this month (opposed to the more usual 4). I'd say that it is, at the least, worth a scan through the article titles listed below, in case anything jumps out at you too.

I've not provided links to individual articles online, just the issue's index page, seeing as most people won't have full access to many of the articles anyway.

** 29 Aug:

+ "It's a small world - in a healthy brain" p14 -

The neuronal structures (in human cortices) display behaviour consistent with their connectivity being finely configured to a state of 'self organised criticality'. Basically that means cascades of activity are as unpredictable as earthquakes and the neurons form a structure more like human society (where one's only ever 6 degrees of separation from anyone else on the planet), rather than merely relying on neighbouring cells to pass signals on to their neighbours, etc. This comes as no surprise to anyone who's up to speed with the revolution of network theory from the beginning of this decade. And it doesn't elucidate much further as to how we think, let alone what makes us conscious/sentient.

The sited study looked at brains with Alzheimer's (which were seen to have long distance connections that were too random) and Frontal Temporal Lobe Dementia (which had too few long distance connections).

So I now wonder if something similar might be the cause of dyslexia (rather than macro-scale variations, like a particular brain region being smaller). For me dyslexia has meant: very slow reading speed in particular (even more prominently than blindness to certain spelling transliterations). What if my current condition also represents a structural deviation in my brain?; A decline in cognitive ability, particularly higher order (conscious) thought that, presumably, requires the most widespread cortical co-ordination, making it most susceptible to such faults.

Of course, even in an optimally order brain, each cell's activation threshold has to be carefully tuned, so that the network operates in a region of chaos, rather than epileptic fit or coma (too low threshold & too high threshold, respectively). Neuromodulation (by serotonin, melatonin, dopamine, adrenaline, etc) and variations in oxygen and glucose concentration can also be responsible for moving the brain away from it's optimal operating range.

+ "Air travellers get a robot chauffeur" p19 -

I (and some of my friends) have thought for a while that we could have entirely 'self driven' cars on the roads by now, from a technical stand point. The (good) reason why we actually have none, is that

Classic Lewy - Musical Composition on Evolution

On BBC2 last night - "Classic Goldie": The famous drum'n'bass populariser composes a piece for the 2009 Proms with full orchestra and choir. Themed on (his interpretation of) evolution; Starts with big bang, has tribal phases, spirituality heavy, etc. It's not that surprising that he manages to pull it off with some style, despite having no formal musical training and being initially unable to read notation; he has a professional composer as a personal assistant, an operator to solidify all the details onto computer and an entire orchestra of the most talented musical minds in the country to inspire and assist him.

[Above: compossition of 2 screen shots from the show, via iPlayer]

+ Anyway, I couldn't help thinking about how I would go about creating a piece embodying evolution, starting from the *very beginning*, especially having recently been thinking about genes, memes, and temes.

It would be:

- A musicalisation (audio equivalent to visualisation) of an exponentially scaled (allegorical) history of the universe.

- It would have to show patterns (refrains), like sections of genetic code, cropping up, being copied/repeated (to other instruments), being slightly modified (some fail = stop, some continue & expand in length/complexity). The layers build up on top of one another, being played simultaneously, like a food web/musical ecology.

- A fairly simple concept that would take a musical genius (not me!) to make sound good, as well as being informative. The important bit would be the evolution of tunes ('melod-emes' as i call them), the linear history of time structure could be stripped away if desired.

+ Structure wise it would go somewhat like this:

- Start with a very, very rapidly crescendoing roar of every instrument played evenly (no distinguishable stick impacts or anything).

{inflation}

- The homogeneous roar slowly diminuendos, abruptly cutting out (but not *quite* all at once), leaving part of the percussion department still going.

{first atoms form, universe becomes transparent}

- Distinct beats can be discerned, but in no pattern and very rapid. Low, quiet tone from across the whole orchestral slides very slowly (so at first is not noticed; it has been there since transparency), then increasingly rapid, as it gets higher pitched, culminating in a blowtorch noise {stars ignite}. Perhaps a series of sliding notes from different parts of the orchestra (getting closer together in time) each resulting in a new layer of blowtorch noise.

{gravity takes hold; formation of galaxies, stars ignite}

- Difficult... but most of the layers of blowtorch noise would stop with a crash, one at a time.

{heavier elements synthesised & supernovas}

- Cyclical rhythms emerge in percussion, the more wild/haphazard/syncopated ones end abruptly end (in very loud bangs), leaving one steady beat (no syncopation).

{planetary systems resolve to stable orbits}

- Percussive bangs (not as loud as the planetary collisions, but the tail end of them), frequent but tailing off. Blowtorch still quiet in background. During the bigger gaps between bangs, bits of tune start to emerge, then are temporarily silenced by a bang (or 2), before resuming (the same, timid, simple tune (on one instrument)).

{Cometary impacts}

Difficult to represent asteroids bringing water to the earth's surface unless imitating or using recordings of ocean (wave) sounds, and splashes; don't want the piece to turn into a clip-art esq collection of sound effects!

- Several fairly discordant melod-emes (i.e. tune ideas/memes) might be heard around one section of the orchestra (at random timings, on different instruments of e.g. the string section) then one catchy melodic tune appears and is repeated immediately across that section (so becoming louder, more distinguishable), then split octaves (for cello vs viola), harmonised too perhaps.

{organic chemistry leads to self replicating molecules & genes}

- The above process is repeated for each new section of instruments {species of animal}. In principle they should start with the same tune as the section before, then embellish and add to it. The effect should be a little like singing "London's Burning" in rounds, but much more complicated and with intermediate steps (which are free to clash a little with the existing notes for a while).

{building of ecosystems}

The first melod-eme could start on double-base (e.g. 3-4-3-1-2-4-repeat; bass riff notes), repeating every bar. Then cello (or whatever) joins in the same tune for a bar before adding additional notes in-between on the next repetition. (now i'm just thinking of a jazz number with each instrument coming in, in turn until the star trumpet/clarinet player really takes the tune away into ad-lib craziness. Not quite what i was aiming for, but a good alternative.)

Harmonies/chords on the same (set of) instrument(s) could represent {multicellular organisms}, but perhaps that's a bit of a stretch of interpretation.

- After the bunches of tunes have reached crescendo for a little while (and been dominated by low brass instruments {dinosaurs}), another cometary crash silences the more complicated (recently added) half of instruments/tunes. A new set of melod-emes emerges (more rapidly this

time) along a distinctly different feel of refrain.

{mass extinction > beginning of mammals}

- Need a particularly catchy tune (melod-eme) for humans, medium long, and perhaps on an instrument/played in a way that definitely hasn't been heard yet (in the piece).

{humans}

- Much of the detail of different/convoluted tunes across different instruments can be stripped away now, being replaced by/turning into harmonies of that fit with the dominant {human} tune.

{Agriculture/animal domestication, massive extinction}

- Choir would come in at this point, no words as such (obviously would spoil the music as an analogy, rather than dialogue), should give a ominous effect. Drops away a little as the next feature comes in fully.

{religion}

- Synth/electric instruments (perhaps traditional rock band set) kick in with their own (complimentary, but more jagged/cutting/staccato) tunes.

{technology memes}

This has now become distinctly rock music (with orchestral backing). 2 drum fills could be inserted for the world wars.

- Volume is now becoming unbearably loud, with lots of extra detail stemming from and fitted around the main human refrain (that has transferred dominance to the electric instruments (perhaps lead by lead-guitar)). Extra layers of guitar and funky beats joining in.

{20th century => Current => G.N.R. revolutions}

- Perhaps a very rapid electronic tuned synth whizzing around everywhere like at insanely fast auto (tone) dialler/modem.

{Internet through to AI}

All tunes/rhythms/patterns that have been heard throughout the piece join back in for a brief, orgasmic climax (fairly strong choir/religious sound permitted, but not dominant).

{Singularity}

- Ending is a paradox, because the Singularity (and evolution itself IMHO) is all about eternal progress, without end, in subjective time. I think, if the roar of orgasmic detail where to inverse rapid-fade (like a backwards explosion/cymbal crash) to deliberately mirror the very beginning (of the piece), that would be as good as could be done:

That way it shows the perspective from real time (if we have Tiplerian Singularity in a closed universe). It also rounds off the whole of existence; there is nothing external to the piece, no before or after movements; all of the meaning/purpose/detail is contained within. And the manically chaotic ending roar is shown to be the polar opposite of the homogeneous beginning roar (having experienced all the details being built up), despite it sounding indistinguishable on first impressions.

[Above: a little composition by me for this article]

+ In principle the music should build up in layers, each on top of the next; the blow torch of the suns, rhythm of the orbits, basic repetitive first tunes {of the micro-organisms}, should continue in the background behind the detail of everything that comes thereafter (like the foundations of an upside-down pyramid). In practice they will definitely need to be gradually faded down to allow the next layer to be properly heard, and probably faded out altogether (until the very end).

+ Writing the combined, interlocking ecosystem of tunes for the end of the piece will be almost all of the work. From there, one can work backwards, taking out notes and simplifying rhythms, making deviations for failed attempts {at species} and writing the alternative {dinosaurs} themed tuned section.

- An existing piece of music (with sufficient depth of layers) could be deconstructed in a similar manner, for this purpose.

- Fragments of Well known tunes could be incorporated into the piece for an ultimate mash-up. However, this would distract too much from the overall meaning of the piece (if that was what was considered important); listeners would start playing name the song.

- The deconstruction could be done automatically with an algorithm/AI. Or built up dynamically using genuine evolutionary algorithms, with a fitness function that rates the resulting listenability or the music (the difficult bit; getting an AI to appreciate music effectively).

+ It might be possible to get the bare bones of this idea done with just jazz band (or even rock band) instruments... That should certainly keep it from getting unhearably complex. In the mid section that would be desirable, but at the end that's the exact effect aimed for. Would have to increase the tempo instead to achieve the same effect.

+ I just realised that a visualisation made to fit with my hypothetical composition would be somewhat like a scientifically rigorous version of the "Big Bang Theory" introduction... They'd do well to replace their original (annoying as hell) theme tune with a (highly condensed) version of my composition!

[Above: another collage of mine - "Evolution of Musicianship?"]